Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals

Netflix apparently has mixed feelings about the FCC’s push to reclassify ISPs under Title II regulation. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference, Netflix CFO David Wells said his company had hoped for a non-regulatory resolution and wasn’t “pleased” with the outcome.

The board has been expanded to 15 members, including for the first time the chairs of each of the five Standards Subcommittees to increase participation in, and knowledge of, the SCTE's standards activities.

Rep. Greg Walden called the FCC’s decision to reclassify broadband as a communications service a “total overreach,” and insisted that a legislative approach is the best way to assure that ISPs conform to network neutrality principles.

Rep. Greg Walden called the FCC’s decision to reclassify broadband as a communications service a “total overreach,” and insisted that a legislative approach is the best way to assure that ISPs conform to network neutrality principles.

The console, called Shield, is designed to deliver video – including ultra HD (UHD, aka 4K), music, apps, and games. Although it can deliver video, the company is positioning the product as primarily a game system.

Beginning today, TWC video subscribers who have either a free or paid Xbox Live account will be able to access to 7,000 free and subscription on-demand titles via their game consoles, from any room without an additional set top box.

The two are partnering to provide a set of hosted solutions designed to put IP-based video services within the reach of Tier 2s and Tier 3s. The integrated systems will enable smaller cable and telco operators to offer multi-screen delivery of live TV and VOD services.

Synacor is in the process of evolving its portal service into a content distribution system. To that end, it is stitching together the elements required for such a system, now including back-office management from thePlatform.

Starting next month Cable One plans to start increasing Internet upload and download speeds on its Premier and Ultra plans across the majority of its network. Current subscribers will get free upgrades, and new subscribers will sign on at the new speeds.

Comcast remains confident its takeover of Time Warner Cable will be approved, but if the deal fails to get approval, Charter is ready to step back in. Either way, Liberty Global and Liberty Media expect more consolidation deals.

“President Obama and I have both been longtime supporters of net neutrality,” Wheeler said at MWC, arguing that the Internet needs a referee. “Do we have a set of rules that says activities should be reasonable and somebody who can throw the flag if they’re not?”

Cord-cutting is happening, but it’s still happening only just enough to be detectable. The pay TV industry lost video customers again in 2014, this time about 125,000, compared to a net loss in 2013 of about 95,000 subscribers.

Frontier Communications announced this morning that current president and chief operating officer Daniel McCarthy will succeed Maggie Wilderotter as CEO effective April 3. Wilderotter, the long-time CEO of Frontier, will transition to a new role at Frontier as executive chairman of its board of directors where she will work closely with McCarthy during the transition period.

Robust GPON equipment sales played a key role in driving the worldwide broadband equipment market to a record year in 2014. Spending on broadband aggregation equipment rose 9 percent in 2014, to $8.2 billion, according to a recent report by Infonetics Research.